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CANADIAN WINTER SPORTS 


AND SOMETHING AS TO THEIR GROWING POPULARITY IN THE 

UNITED STATES. 




By HARRY PALMER, t 

(Of The Chicago Evening 'Journal .) 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

MISS FLOSS PALMER. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S86, by A. G. Spalding 
& Bros., at the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 


A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

PUBLISHERS, 

241 Broadway, New York. 10S Madison Street, Chicago. 







A Wr . 


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* orq 


PREFACE. 


In presenting this little work upon tobogganing 
we do so in the belief that it will not only be of in¬ 
terest but of practical value to those desirous of par¬ 
ticipating in this most exhilarating and enjoyable of 
all winter sports throughout the North. Until with¬ 
in the past two or three years tobogganing has been 
in vogue only in Canada and in a few New England 
States where the hilly character of the country 
afforded many natural slides to lovers of the sport. 
In Russia, however, tobogganing had long been a 
popular pastime, notwithstanding the fact that a 
large part of that country is as flat and unbroken as 
are the prairie lands of Illinois. This inconsider¬ 
ate omission upon the part of nature the Russians 
overcome by building artificial slides, and the ex¬ 
ample was soon followed in several Canadian cities, 
it being found that the artificial slides were superior 
to the natural in many respects. Since the winter of 
1884, when a now celebrated slide was erected at 
Saratoga, tobogganing over artificial slides has rapidly 
grown in popularity in the United States, and the 
aily costumed tobogganer at the Ice Palace Carnival 
in St. Paul last winter was among the most conspicu¬ 
ous and numerous of the revelers there. Last winter 
(3) 



4 


PREFACE. 


toboggan clubs were organized in Chicago and sev¬ 
eral other places in the Northern States, Orange, N.J,, 
Boston, and Burlington, Vt. This winter the organi¬ 
zation of several other clubs is assured, and the con¬ 
struction of the public slides upon the grounds of the 
Chicago base ball club, New York polo grounds, 
Boston base ball grounds and other private parks, as 
well as the construction upon a larger scale than ever 
of the slides at St. Paul, presage a period of popu¬ 
larity for tobogganing in the North that will eventu¬ 
ally make it the national winter pastime of Ameri¬ 
cans, just as base ball has become the national 
summer pastime. In the following pages we have 
attempted, through description and illustration, to 
familiarize the reader with the sport as it has been 
and is now enjoyed in Montreal, Quebec, Saratoga, 
St. Paul and throughout the New England States, 
and as it must very soon come to be participated in in 
all Northern cities in the United States where the 
snow falls to any depth. 


The Publishers. 



THE TOBOGGAN. 

I. 


TOBOGGANING — A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE GROWTH 

AND POPULARITY OF THE SPORT-ARTIFICIAL 

SLIDES - HOW THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED AND 

OPERATED. 

“ Toboggan.” A queer term to be sure, but the 
language of the American abounds in queer terms 
that are merely corruptions of words from other 
languages, and in distorting the Indian word oda- 
baggan into the simple, and more pronounceable one 
of “ toboggan,” Americans may be pardoned in thus 
Americanizing the language of the red man; a liberty 
we have taken not only with the language of the 
Indian but with that of almost every nation repre¬ 
sented to any extent upon American soil. 

Tobogganing, while an institution of European 
as well as New World countries, is a recognized form 
of American sport. Its home and origin are Canadian, 
and it is in Canada and the vast expanse of country 
adjoining it on the north that the toboggan is most 
extensively used, both as a means of transportation 
and of recreation. Appleton in treating upon the 

( 5 ) 


6 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


word says that the toboggan is a “ sled without run¬ 
ners,” made of a strip of some tough, fibrous and 
elastic wood, from one-eighth inch to one-quarter 
inch in thickness, and this withal gives a very com¬ 
prehensive idea of the primitive conveyance which in 
these modern times has been utilized by young 
American man and womanhood as a means of rare 
and exhilarating sport. The length of a toboggan 
varies in accordance with the number of people it is 
intended to carry, single flyers being from four to 
five feet in length, and the longest eight feet, although 
the rule for a racing flyer is that when standing upon 
end it shall exceed the height of the steerer by twelve 
inches, and may be from sixteen to twenty-four inches 
in breadth. It is cleated with short ribs of tough 
wood upon the upper side to give it increased strength, 
and along each end of these ribs just over the extreme 
edges of the toboggan are lashed the hand rails to 
which the load of the conveyance is strapped down, 
or to which its occupants cling as they dash over the 
slide. The fore end of the toboggan is steamed and 
bent backward like the dashboard of a sleigh. When 
used for coasting it is usually cushioned, the cushion 
being firmly strapped down to the side rails. 

ORIGIN OF THE TOBOGGAN. 

The toboggan dates back to an almost indefinite 
period in history, in that when the land of the Es¬ 
quimaux first became known to Americans these 


T1IE TOBOGGAN. 


7 


sleds, with dogs or men to draw them, were used by 
the Northmen in the transportation of their effects, 
their game, and the furs which they made a busi¬ 
ness of procuring. The Canadian Indians and the 
tribes occupying the far Northwest regions of the 
continent used them for the same purpose, and indeed 
it would be difficult to invent a conveyance more in¬ 
geniously adapted to the wants and customs of the 
people of these sections than is the toboggan. The 
deep snows which fall early in the season, and which 
remain through the long, dreary winter, obliterating 
all trails and roadways, and making but trackless 
wastes of the broad stretches of country, could 
scarcely be traversed with any other style of convey¬ 
ance than the broad surfaced, light weighted tobog¬ 
gan, which glides along over the upper crust of the 
snow, notwithstanding that it may be heavily loaded. 
The Indians originally fastened the parts of their to¬ 
boggans together wholly with deer thongs, and in¬ 
deed many of the toboggans of Canadian manufact¬ 
ure at the present day are so put together, but of late 
years toboggan manufacturers in the New England 
States have introduced metal rivets, which give to the 
toboggan a greater degree of strength and durability 
without lessening its elasticity. Until of late years 
birch and bass wood were the only woods from 
which toboggans were constructed, but now maple 
and hickory are very largely used. Experiments 
in steel have been made, but have never resulted in 


8 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


the production of a toboggan equal in speed and con¬ 
venience of weight to that of the modern flyer. 

AS A CONVEYANCE FOR SPORT 

or pastime the toboggan is of comparatively recent 
origin. Upon the hills which abound throughout 
Canada the Canadians took advantage of the natural 
slides offered, and within a season or two after 
the sport was lirst introduced in the vicinity of 
Quebec, Montreal, Toronto and other cities of the Do¬ 
minion, it became immensely popular among Canadi¬ 
ans through that entire country. The great difficulty 
of tobogganists, however, was in securing a slide of 
perfect grade and smoothness. The natural resili- 
ancy of the toboggan causes a peculiar condition of 
things, not unattended with danger, when it strikes a 
sudden depression or elevation during its rapid flight, 
for as a natural result of its elasticity it will throw its 
burden or occupants high into the air—unless the 
same be firmly attached to the hand rails—and this, 
too, with a reckless disregard of result somewhat un¬ 
comfortable for the rider. 

These defects in a natural slide are called by Ca¬ 
nadians cahots , and many are the laughable accidents 
as well as sore limbs and bruises that have resulted 
from them. 

To overcome this objection Canadian enthusiasts 
in the sport introduced the artificial slide , which had 
long been popular in Russia, and which consists 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


9 


simply of a scaffolding of heavy timbers, the highest 
point of which may be forty or even fifty feet from 
the ground with a gradual descent, sufficiently steep, 
however, to give the tobogganists the impetus de¬ 
sired. The famous slide of the Teuque Bleue To¬ 
boggan Club at Montreal and that at Woodlawn 
Park, Saratoga, are at the starting point forty feet 
from the ground, the descent being one hundred and 
twenty feet long. The distance traveled over the 
artificial slide is of course only the beginning of the 
sport, for the toboggan has attained its greatest im¬ 
petus only when it reaches the earth, and will travel 
upon the level track a distance three or four times as 
great as that of the slide proper. In Russia the 
double slide is quite popular, that is in other words, 
two slides set opposite one another, the tracks run¬ 
ning parallel so that when the tobogganist starts 
from the top of one slide he is at the base of the 
tower of the other slide, and has only to ascend the 
steps to ride back to the base of the tower from 
which he first started. The single slide, however, is 
most popular in America. 

THE ARTIFICIAL SLIDE. 

At the top of the tower is a platform from which 
the tobogganist starts, and leading downward from 
this, at an angle of say forty-five degrees, are the 
chutes (it being usual to have two, three or four 
chutes to one structure) in which the toboggan runs. 


io 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


These chutes and the track beyond are packed very 
firmly with snow, over which water is poured until it 
freezes into a solid mass of ice from six to eight 
inches deep. The chute is from four to six feet in 
width, and protected upon each side by flaring boards 
to prevent the toboggan and its load leaving the 
track laterally. The ice track is carefully planed 
and swept until its surface is smooth and glistening as 
glass itself. A loaded toboggan over such a surface 
and at the angle upon which the regulation slide is 
constructed, will attain a marvelous rate of speed 
which, in the majority of instances, and with all con¬ 
ditions favorable, reaches a mile per minute, or even 
more. Indeed, the manufacturers of the now cele¬ 
brated “ Star ” toboggan, made in Burlington, Vt., 
openly advertise the fact that upon that toboggan, shod 
with steel, a speed of three miles per minute may be 
attained with perfect safety. The timidly inclined 
may regard such sport with horror, but in truth the 
chances for accident are one in ten thousand, and it is 
doubtful if any occur even in this ratio. No such 
occurrence as a tobogganist having fallen from the 
chute has ever been recorded, and the worst that can 
happen is the upsetting or whirling around of the 
toboggan after it leaves the chute and enters the track, 
in which event its occupants are treated to a plunge 
in the snow or a trifling shaking up. Even this, 
however, rarely occurs, when the steersman is ex¬ 
perienced in handling the vehicle. 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


I I 


TOBOGGAN COSTUMES. 

Not the least of the attractions in tobogganing lies 
in the picturesque beauty of the costumes worn. 
These, for both ladies and gentlemen, are fashioned 
from soft woolen blankets of blue, scarlet, orange, 
old gold, pink, purple and other attractive colors, 
either solid or tastefully blended, and when a tobog¬ 
gan slide is in full blast the scene presented under the 
glare of the electric light or the lurid glow of the 
torch is certainly one never to be forgotten by partici¬ 
pant or beholder. For gentlemen the costume con¬ 
sists usually of a blouse with a frock which covers 
the hips and buttons tightly down the front, knee 
breeches, warm woolen stockings and moccasins, the 
head being covered by a tuque of the same brilliant 
hue as the sash which is wrapped twice around 
the waist, the tasseled end falling over the left hip. 
For ladies the costume consists of a long cloak but¬ 
toning down the front, and conhned by a sash like 
that worn by her escort, moccasins, and a tuque . 
Every article of these costumes is fashioned from the 
woolen blankets referred to, and are made with as 
much skill in cut and finish as the art of the tailor 
can command. 

HOW TO STEER. 

Formerly the toboggan was steered by a short stick 
of wood held in each hand of the steerer, but now 
the steerer guides the course of his conveyance with 


12 


THE TOBOGGAN'. 


the toe of his foot, taking his position if there be two 
or more in the toboggan, at the rear end and resting 
upon his right side to steer with the left foot, which 
should trail gracefully behind, or upon the left side, 
to steer with the right foot. The toe of the steerer 
is lightly applied to the track from time to time as he 
may see the craft requires guidance. The right foot 
is usually used in steering, but the steerer may em¬ 
ploy either, it being considered an accomplishment to 
be able to steer with one foot as well as the other. 
The steerer may kneel, may rest upon his hip or side, 
or may occupy any position that is most agreeable 
and effective. As the toboggan runs upon a broad, 
flat surface it is much easier to guide than the sled, 
and is readily responsive to the slightest touch of the 
moccasined toe which directs its course. 

CANADIAN VS. AMERICAN TOBOGGANS. 

The manufacture of toboggans in the United 
States is an enterprise of comparatively late date, and 
even in Canada, the birth-place of tobogganing, the 
American manufactured toboggan is now greatly in 
demand. An authority on the subject was asked by 
the writer about the comparative merits of the Cana¬ 
dian toboggans and those made at Burlington and 
elsewhere in this country. “ The Canadian tobog¬ 
gans,” he said, “are not constructed on scientific prin¬ 
ciples, At any rate, those of them which I have 
seen were not. In the first place I don’t think maple 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


■3 

is as good a material as hickory. Then again, I don’t 
approve of rigid wooden rails along the sides ; they 
stiffen the toboggan so that all the spring is taken 
out of it. The first principle in the construction of a 
toboggan ought to be to make it springy,like a whip. 
Most Canadian toboggans are perfectly smooth and 
flat on the bottom. Now that’s a mistake ; three or 
four of the planks only ought to come in contact with 
the ice, and they should be rounded off so that the 
friction may be reduced to the minimum. The best 
toboggan I ever saw was of hickory, with three 
wooden strips, about as thick as two of your fingers, 
raised from the bottom to serve as runners. One of 
the best points about it was that the screws and rivets 
did not come through the bottom at all, and that is very 
important, since if the screws project the least bit they 
will tear the ice all to pieces and spoil the slide. Be¬ 
sides, the snow gets into the holes where the screws 
are sunk, and makes the bottom of the toboggan 
rough. The toboggan I speak of was a trifle heavier 
than I like, for though a heavy toboggan goes a little 
faster, it is harder to pull up hill, and if there is an 
accident there is more likelihood of getting hurt,” 

THE STAR. 

The most prominent and seemingly successful man¬ 
ufacturers of toboggans at the present time is a Bur¬ 
lington, Vt., firm. They make the celebrated “ Star ” 
toboggan, which has been from the first the acknowl- 


H 


THE TOBOGGAN. 


edged standard in clubs and with private individuals 
and experts, simply because it is constructed with an 
understanding of the necessary requirements. The 
essential features of the “ Star” are a toboggan made 
of slats, and the slats shaped to lessen the frictional 
surface. The old Indian form was perfectly flat on 
the bearing surface, and formed of one or two pieces 
of thin wood, and besides lacking the requisite strength 
and lateral resiliency, it offered the greatest resist¬ 
ance, or frictional surface to the snow. For this rea¬ 
son all flat toboggans are comparatively slow. In¬ 
stead of the riveted side rails formerly used, which 
proved to be too stiff in long toboggans, the “ Star ” 
has a light oak or hickory rail, which passes through 
a patent fixture,and being fastened at one point only, 
permits a free, bending movement of the toboggan. 
This of course is a great improvement over the more 
rigid rail. 

A six-foot “ Star ” toboggan weighs only fourteen 
pounds, is a marvel of strength, beauty, and obedience 
to the will of the steerer, and may attain a speed of 
three miles a minute with perfect safety. Think 
of it. 


LIFE IN MONTREAL. 

II. 


A GLIMPSE OF CANADIAN WINTER LIFE AS SEEN 
AT MONTREAL. 

“A winter in Canada! I think I should rather 
spend it there than anywhere else on the face of this 
broad earth,” said a young Montrealese to me one 
afternoon last winter, as we sat in the parlors of a 
famous Chicago club house on Michigan avenue, and 
watched the continual stream of sleighs on their way 
to and from the boulevards. 

“What! and freeze to death?” I asked. 

My friend laughed. “ No, old fellow,” said he, 
“ you’d have no time for freezing, if you were pos¬ 
sessed of good health and a reasonable amount of 
activity. There is no country on the globe—and I 
have visited a good many of them—wherein the in¬ 
habitants so thoroughly enjoy the season beginning 
with November 15 and lasting until March 1, as do 
the Canadians. They are a hardy set, with the 
natural indifference to exposure that results from the 
character of that climate, and it is when the snow 
falls that you see the sport-loving side of the Cana¬ 
dian gentleman’s character. I have said Canadian 

(15) 


i6 


LIFE IN MONTREAL. 


gentleman. I should have included our women as 
well, for there are few Canadian winter sports in 
which they do not participate. I go to Canada next 
week for a fortnight’s stay at my home in Montreal. 
Why not join me?” 

“ Ugh! It is the middle of January,” I replied, as 
a cold shiver passed over me with the thought of ex¬ 
periencing what I had always imagined a Canadian 
winter to be. 

“Just the time we want to be there, and I will 
warrant that you will find it no colder in Montreal 
than it is upon the shore of Lake Michigan to-day.” 

How my fears were overcome I do not know even 
now, hut ten days later I was unpacking my trunk 
in the ancestral home of my friend, a fine old house 
which stood some four miles from Montreal in one of 
that historic city’s quaintest and prettiest suburbs. 
Dick’s father was a typical Canadian gentleman, a 
barrister of some note and possessed of an ample for¬ 
tune, and Dick’s sisters, three in number, were—I 
thought when I first saw their rosy cheeks and bright 
eyes in the roomy, old fashioned sleigh that awaited 
us at the depot—the prettiest, most wholly irresisti¬ 
ble specimens of young womanhood I had ever had 
the good fortune to look upon. It was but a few 
moments before the spirited grays had whirled us 
through the streets of the quaint yet withal hand¬ 
somely constructed city, and out into the broad high¬ 
way beyond, which led to Dick’s home. The snow 

































































































































i8 


LIFE IN MONTREAL. 


was the same, with many additional falls, that had 
covered the earth during the preceding November, 
and was packed so hard and firm by constant travel 
that it seemed an interminable glare of ice. The air 
was cold and bracing but dry as a whip, and the 
glistening crystals of snow in the roadway danced 
and sparkled under the silvery light of the moon, as 
though they had been so many polished diamonds. 
As we passed though the streets of the city I became 
impressed with the noticeable air of life and gaiety 
with which every one seemed imbued. The lights 
in the shop windows shone out upon the stalwart 
forms of manly looking fellows in seal skin caps and 
gauntlets. The jingle of sleigh bells from scores of 
teams other than our own, and the quick beat of 
horses’ hoofs were heard upon every side, while merry 
laughter from girlish throats added to the happy, ir¬ 
responsible tout ensemble of our surroundings. 
“Surely,” thought I, “m v first impressions of a Cana¬ 
dian winter are pleasant enough.” Out on the high¬ 
way we passed a four in hand with a merry load that 
bubbled over with cheer and laughter as we passed 
them, and when finally we swept out of the road and 
into the long drive that wound through the grounds 
of “the Castle,” I saw the cheery glow of the grate 
fires through the frosted windows of one of the most 
hospitable old mansions in all Canada. 

I wish it were within the power of my pen to de¬ 
scribe Canadian winter life as I saw it and shared in 


LIFE IN MONTREAL. 


*9 


it during the fortnight that followed, and at the same 
time carry with the description a conception of the 
rare enjoyment to be derived from the cold, bracing 
atmosphere, the exhilarating effects of ice skating, 
the snow-shoe tramp, the toboggan slide, the sleigh¬ 
ing jaunt, and the score of other pastimes in which 
the Canadians indulge with an abandon and degree 
of enthusiasm I have never seen equaled outside of 
the Dominion. The Canadian, it seems, is never 
happier than when the snow falls, and when the first 
feathery flakes of an approaching winter begin to 
whiten the ground, Montreal seems suddenly im¬ 
bued with a new lease of life. Business is forgotten 
in one mad whirl of gaiety. Ice rinks throw open 
their doors. Toboggan slides are “packed and wa¬ 
tered.” Snow shoes are taken down from the hooks 
upon which they have hung all summer, club uni¬ 
forms are shaken out, badges burnished up, and to¬ 
boggans dragged from their resting places in prepa¬ 
ration for the sport of the coming season. The ice 
palace—now world famed—is constructed. The 
crisp snow on street and footpath is crushed beneath 
the heel of citizen and tourist. Bright eyes and rosy 
cheeks; athletic figures and manly faces; heartborn 
laughter and careless song, are seen and heard which- 
ever way one may turn, and in the glare of electric 
light or the gleam of the torch; the crash of music 
and the dazzling array of brilliant costumes and lovely 
faces; the flash of steel runner and the whirl of the 


2C 


LIFE IN MONTREAL. 


feathery snow, care is forgotten, and the work-a-day 
worry of business and home life is put aside in one 
ecstatic and seemingly reckless whirl of pleasure 
which begins with the coming of the snow king, and 
ends only with his going. 

As I listened to the music and watched the pano¬ 
ramic scene presented by the brightly costumed 
skaters as they swept over the glistening surface of 
Victoria rink; as I stood at the top of the Teuque 
Bleue slide, down which an hundred merry coasters 
were flying, and at the foot of which were gathered 
five hundred steel-geared equipages, their horses 
restlessly champing their bridle chains and shaking 
the bells that arched over their backs, while happy 
faces peered from the folds of wolfrobe and sealskin; 
as I looked upon the glittering walls of the Ice Palace, 
and as mounted upon my snow-shoes, I held the 
mittened hand of Dick’s youngest sister in a glori¬ 
ous moonlight “Shoe-tramp” cross country, the 
thought came unbidden to my mind, “ Where art 
thou, Chicago? Where art thou, New York? 
With all thy greatness; with all thy wealth and 
grandeur; with all thy beauty, thrift and enterprise? 
Thou hast none of these.” 


ON THE SLIDE. 

III. 


AN AFTERNOON UPON A MONTREAL TOBOGGAN 

SLIDE. 

It was the morning of my second day’s stay at 
“the Castle,” and Diok and myself were seated in the 
library enjoying an after breakfast cigar. Outside 
the earth was white with a glorious mantle of snow, 
and from the heavy clouds overhead the feathery 
flakes were hilling thick and fast, the wind catching 
them up in great gusts and whirling them hither 
and thither around the stone walls of the old house, 
while it shrieked as with laughter at the boisterous 
sport it was enjoying, 

“Did you ever toboggan, Harry?” asked my 
friend. 

“No, but I am willing to be initiated,” I replied. 

“All right, my lad, we ’ll initiate you this after¬ 
noon, if the storm lets up. The girls have arranged 
a party in honor of our arrival, and we will go over 
to 1 the hill ’ this afternoon. Our party will lunch en 
costume', and, by the way, we must be looking up our 
rigs.” 

It is a poorly equipped house in Canada that has 

(21) 





ON THE SLIDE. 


22 



































ON THE SLIDE. 


2 3 


not some compartment, some nook or corner set 
apart for the storage of the various riggings and outfits 
used in the enjoyment of both summer and winter 
sports. Such a room there was in “the Castle,” and 
along its walls hung innumerable pairs of snow 
shoes, three feet in length and upward. An extra 
suit of Dick’s seemed to have been made for myself 
expressly, and when a score of gaily costumed, 
happy faced young men and women sat down to the 
well spread board in “the Castle” dining hall I was 
on equal footing with them in grotesqueness of ap¬ 
parel. 

“How is the slide, Nell?” asked Dick of his 
elder sister. 

“All right, I guess,” was her answer. “The storm 
has come to a halt, and I have sent the men down 
to sweep it off. It was smooth as marble the day 
before you came.” 

“ Why, Mr. H., how well your toboggan suit be¬ 
comes you,” said Dick’s younger sister, the girl 
whom I was beginningto think was the fairest thing 
I had yet seen in Canada, and with a gratified glance 
at my tasty rigging, I mentally determined that 
thereafter I would wear a toboggan suit during every 
remaining day of my stay at “the Castle.” 

Short-lived determination! How soon my pride and 
gratification at the picturesque—and perhaps at that 
moment becoming—style of my toboggan suit re¬ 
ceived a disastrous fall; a fall which I felt for some 


OX T1IE SLIDE. 


3 4 

days afterward, the succeeding lines of this chapter 
may best tell. We were a merry party, as dragging 
our toboggans after us, or carrying them under our 
arms, we tramped along the highway to “the hill.” 
(I have forgotten what Dick called it, but it was the 
club slide of the toboggan club of which the majority 
of our party were members; and there are a hun¬ 
dred such organizations of greater or less importance 
in Montreal and vicinity.) When we arrived at the 
foot of the slide we were joined by others of the club, 
and there, stretching away up the side of the hill, 
was the long, glistening roadway with nearly an 
eighth of a mile incline, and fully a third of a mile of 
well packed track stretching from its base across the 
adjoining meadow. 

The men had worked diligently, and the snow that 
had been swept from the surface of the solidly frozen 
slide was banked up in ridges on either side, leaving 
a long roadway of glaring ice as solid as the frozen 
surface of Lake Michigan. 

Up the hill we clambered, and as I felt the gloved 
hand of Dick’s younger sister upon my sustaining 
arm, I wished the climb might have been twice the 
distance, and right here I want to say that if ever a 
woman looks fresh and young and irresistibly lovely 
it is when at the top of a climb up a toboggan slide 
she stops with her cheeks flushed, her lips parted, and 
her eyes shining with the exertion of the tramp. At 
least I thought so when I glanced into the glowing 


ON THE SL.IDE. 


face of mv pretty companion. What a sight it was 
to look back down the slide as we stood at the start¬ 
ing point. The clouds had blown overhand now the 
sun shone down with dazzling brightness upon the 
snow-covered landscape, causing the burnished sur¬ 
face of the slide to look like a long stretch of pol¬ 
ished silver as it swept down the side of the hill and 
across the meadow lands in the distance. Just beyond 
the foot of the incline stood the zig-zag rails of a farm 
fence, and these, together with a few scattered clumps 
of trees along the side of the slide, were the only ex¬ 
isting objects to break the mantle of white that cov¬ 
ered the hillside. 

“ Now, Harry, for a slide such as you never had in 
your life before,” said Dick, interrupting my con¬ 
templation of what to me was one of the most beau¬ 
tiful views I had ever enjoyed. “ We’ll take ‘ The 
Major,’ Nell,” continued Dick to his sister, selecting 
one of the largest and heaviest of the toboggans we 
had brought with us, and swinging it around into 
position, with its nose pointed down-hill. “ On you 
go, Nell,” and the young lady took her position upon 
the fore end of die conveyance. “ Now, Harry. 
Now, Regina;” and with Dick’s younger sister 
seated behind me, I firmly grasped a side rail with 
each hand. A glance to the rear showed me Dick 
getting into position to steer. “ Hold on to her, old 
man, and look out for cahots ,” he said in a warning 
voice as he caught my eye, and before I could reply 



6 















































































































































































ON THE SLIDE. 


2 7 


the young Montrealese cast one sweeping glance 
down the slide, and then “Let her go /” came from 
his lusty young lungs. The toboggan seemed to 
fairly jump into the air at the signal, as the strong 
arm of a young tobogganist gave us the start; and 
then—the blood seemed to rush back to my heart 
and seek its innermost chamber as a hiding place. 
There was a rush and a swishing sound, as “The 
Major” shot over the polished surface of the slide 
with a speed that I had never before experienced, 
and I have ridden sixty miles an hour upon a rail¬ 
way train on more than one occasion. To breathe 
was difficult; to speak was impossible. The world 
seemed to be suddenly sinking beneath us, and we, 
together with the hill behind us, seemed plunging 
down into eternity, or some other place I wot not of. 
I tried to fix my eye upon the fence or the trees I 
had seen from the top of the slide, but in vain. The 
landscape seemed to have suddenly gone scampering 
away in every direction, and everything seemed to 
be falling with us. “ Hold on, Harry,” came from 
behind me, and simultaneously with the warning the 
toboggan seemed to rise in the air, as we struck what 
I afterward learned was a cahot , or a sudden sharp 
raise in the ground under the ice, and then seemed 
to literally leave the surface and fly through the air 
to the bottom of the incline, which we struck with a 
crash that must have driven my spinal column 
through the back of my neck, had it not been for the 


28 


ON THE SLIDE. 


soft cushion beneath us. We did not stop here, but 
sped on and on across the meadow, the blinding- sen¬ 
sation having stopped with the end of the incline, 
although we were still rushing over the ground at a 
speed I never thought it possible for any object to 
attain, and when finally I heard Dick’s cheery voice 
asking me how I liked it, and looked up to see him 
assisting the girls from the toboggan, I felt precisely 
as a man feels when he awakens from a dream, and 
amidst strange surroundings. 

“Pretty rapid, eh?” asked Dick, smiling at my 
dazed look, and then I heard a merry laugh as Dick’s 
younger sister jumped from the seat upon the cushion, 
and I was reminded thereby how very stupid I must 
look seated alone upon the toboggan, the worst 
“rattled” man in the Dominion of Canada. 

Soon we were tramping up the path beside the 
slide, and as I glanced up the hill and saw another 
toboggan load on the down grade, I involuntarily 
stopped and stepped backward as the trio on the 
flyer shot by me with the speed of the wind. Again 
that delightful walk to the summit with a pretty face 
close to my shoulder, and then again that soul stir¬ 
ring, breath-stealing, but exhilarating and glorious 
shoot over the glistening surface of the slide. After 
we had enjoyed half a dozen such, Dick suggested 
that I take a whirl by myself. I had begun to get 
accustomed to the terrific pace, and with each de¬ 
scent, my confidence increased so that when the 



TRIALS OF A NOVICE ON A NATURAL SLIDE 


29 






































































































3° 


ON THE SLIDE. 


idea was suggested, I accepted it without a moment’s 
hesitation. Dick selected a light toboggan for me, 
and gave me the necessary points in steering, advis¬ 
ing me to sit bolt upright and use my hands to steer 
as it was much the easier. Fifteen seconds later I 
would have given almost anything I possessed had 
Dick and his suggestion been in the United States, 
for no sooner had that miserable and treacherous 
concern got started in its mad career than I lost 
what little head I seemed to have possessed at the out¬ 
set, and unconsciously made a desperate clutch for the 
icy surface with mv left hand, which of course threw 
the toboggan around to one side. After scraping along 
in the midst of a shower of ice and snow, the tobog¬ 
gan and my very much mortified self rolled and slid— 
me upon the seat of my unmentionables—to the bot¬ 
tom of the hill. The peal of laughter that floated 
down from the top of the slide, where half our party 
were congregated, did not tend to increase my tem¬ 
per or my self-composure, and I picked myself and 
my flyer out of the snowbank and started up hill just 
as a pretty face in a blue tuque, whom I fancied was 
one I knew well, shot by me with a big broad 
shouldered fellow guiding her after the manner of 
an artist. That I was not an artist, I was thor¬ 
oughly convinced, but that I was none the less bent 
upon becoming one Iwas equally determined. A little 
kindly advice from Dick, a firm gritting of my teeth, 
and I was again ready for the word. This time I 


ON THE SLIDE. 


3 1 


w kept my head ” admirably as I thought, and away 
I flew with a speed that increased with each second 
of time. “Ah, me girrul! I’ll touch you lightly this 
time,” I muttered, and I fancy I smiled as I reflected 
that the blue tuque , and her artist guide must pass 
me on their return up the hill. 

“Whoop!” Nothing but mortal terror ever brought 
that peculiar exclamation from my lips, and this time 
it came out with all the terror behind it that could 
possibly have been crowded into my soul. What 
had happened I did not know; I did not want to 
know. I was dimly conscious of the fact that I was 
sailing skyward; that I was leaving the earth beneath 
me, and in the next instant that I was returning even 
faster than I went, and then— 

When I opened my eyes I was stretched out upon 
the snow, with a dozen eager faces bending over me. 
From one of these a blue tuque had been pushed back 
and the prettiest eyes in Canada were looking into 
mine, while Dick pressed the mouth of a pocket flask 
to my lips. The side of my head felt as though a 
brick wall had fallen upon it, and when I lifted my 
arm from the snow I saw a smirch of something that 
looked very much like blood upon the sleeve of my 
white woolen blouse. 

“You forgot that cahot , old fellow,” said Dick in a 
cheery voice. “It would bounce a single man ten feet 
in the air where it would not affect a party of four 
very greatly, you understand. Better now?” 























ON THE SLIDE. 


33 

Just how sore I was I did not know until I awoke 
next morning, but notwithstanding my bruised limbs 
and the strip of court plaster over my left ear I reso¬ 
lutely returned to the slide, the next afternoon, de¬ 
termined to master that toboggan if I had to wear it 
and myself out in the effort. I held on to the side 
rails whenever I passed that cahot afterward and be¬ 
fore I had spent two hours at the hill, had the art 
mastered so that I could guide like a veteran. That 
night and the next we attended club slides at the hill, 
and if the sport is attractive in daylight it is doubly 
so by torch and moonlight. Light ash poles with a 
torch swinging at one end thereof are stuck into the 
snow on each side, and at regular intervals along the 
slide, and by the ruddy glow of the flaring smoking 
lamps, the grotesque and brilliant colored costumes 
of the tobogganists present a scene that one can 
surely never forget. 

“ You shall take me down the slide to-night, Mr. 
Harry,” said the blue tuque , as we were on our way 
to the hill the night after my accident. (It had been 
“Mr. Harry” since the date of my mishap.) And I 
did take her down, not once or twice, but many 
times that night, the next, and the next, and am quite 
sure that in all Canada, tobogganing had no greater 
enthusiast than my humble self. Nor was the blue 
tuque alone responsible for my enthusiasm, for of all 
the sports I ever participated in none can equal in 
excitement, healthful physical exercise, and real ex- 


3 


34 


ON THE SLIDE. 


hilaration than that of tobogganing. The enjoy¬ 
ment one experiences is strangely mingled with an 
undefined fear that would naturally take possession 
of a novice when traveling through the air upon so 
frail a looking craft as a toboggan at more than rail¬ 
road speed, and can perhaps be best illustrated by the 
remark of an American girl whom I saw at the slide 
just after her first trip on a toboggan. 

“Isn’t it perfectly glorious?” said she, with glow¬ 
ing cheeks and flashing eyes. “ I would not have 
missed the opportunity for the whole of Montreal.” 

“ Let us take another whirl,” suggested her es¬ 
cort. 

“ Not for the whole of Canada,” was the prompt 
reply, but within ten minutes after she was at it 
again, and finally left Montreal a confirmed tobog- 
ganist. Without question, tobogganing stands alone 
as a healthful and delightful winter pastime. It 
strengthens one’s lungs, invigorates his body, and 
tones up his nerves as no nerve tonic ever could. 
Talk about nerve Jood or nerve tonic! Why, there 
never was a drug invented that can compare with 
the strength-giving quality of Exercise. Exercise 
for the nerves is what is wanted. Gymnasiums have 
been invented for the bone and muscle, and have 
done a world of good, but where is the machine to 
properly exercise the nerves? It is the toboggan . 
Let your nerves feel the thrill of a swift-flying trip 
down a good steep toboggan-slide, and they will get 




NIGHT SCENE ON A TOBOGGAN SLIDE. 














































































































































































































































































































































ON THE SLIDE. 


3 6 

an actual exercise and use that hardly anything else 
in this world can give. There your nerve tonic is 
drawn free from generous nature’s everlasting foun¬ 
tain of health—pure air. “Nerve food,” indeed! 
What food can compare with such nerve exercise as 
that, while the lungs are filled with the ozone of the 
air of a clear winter’s night? Strengthen your nerves 
by use and you get a strong and better heart action 
as well. This is no fancy, but a fact founded on scien¬ 
tific truth. A prominent member of the Saratoga 
Toboggan Club told the writer that when he first 
joined the club his nerves were very weak, and any 
little excitement made his hands tremble, and his 
heart beat faster. His first slide nearly unmanned 
him. He tried it but once that day, but fascinated 
with the sport, he soon became one of the most active 
members of the club, and has ever since been strongly 
conscious of a better heart action and more strength 
of nerve. 



SNOW SHOEING. 

IV. 

A TRAMP CROSS-COUNTRY BY MOONLIGHT AND 

TORCH. 

In addition to the delights of tobogganing how¬ 
ever, I had still to be initiated in a sport equally as 
interesting and novel, that of snow-shoeing, and I re¬ 
ceived my first intimation of it one morning at the 
breakfast table when “the blue tuque ” announced 
that “the Castle” had been selected at the last club 
meeting as the rendezvous for the next shoe tramp, 
which was to take place that evening. “We shall 
walk to Twombley’s,” said she, “by the hill route 
and if the moon is shining it should be a delightful 
tramp, for the air is cold and dry as a whip.” 

“It does not look any too promising for moonlight, 
Reggie,” said Dick, with a glance through the win¬ 
dow at the leaden colored clouds. “Guess I’d better 
fix up the torches.” 

“Well if it snows, so much the better,” said “the 
blue tuque” 


(37) 




3* 


V CLUB TRAMP IN CANADA 



























































































SNOW SHOEING. 


39 


“Look here Dick,” said I to my host after break¬ 
fast, “how the deuce am I going to get over the 
ground on those tennis bats? I never was on a pair 
of them in my life.” 

“That’s a fact,” ruminated Dick. “I hadn’t thought 
of that. Guess I’ll have to break you in a bit before¬ 
hand,” and going to the store room my Canuck friend 
soon reappeared with two pairs of what he termed 
“snow skimmers,” but which looked to me like the 
most unwieldy arrangements ever invented to fit upon 
a man’s foot, and here I may give my American 
readers something of an idea as to the looks, con¬ 
struction, and uses of this ancient foot gearing, for it 
is as old as the toboggan itself, and like the sled of 
the Northmen is an invention of the Esquimau and 
North American Indian. Certainly no invention 
better adapted to the purpose for which it is intended 
could have been invented, although civilization is in¬ 
debted for it to the untutored red man and the Lap¬ 
lander. 

The shoe in general appearance is not unlike a 
tennis bat, as I had facetiously referred to it in my 
conversation with Dick. The frame is made of a 
single strip of hickory or ash, as light in weight as it 
is possible to obtain. This is bent double until the 
ends meet and then bound together for a distance of 
six or ten inches—according to the intended length of 
the shoe—until a long oval, terminating in a sort of 
tail, is produced A thin piece of flat wood is then fit- 


4 o 


SNOW SHOEING. 


ted in the oval extending across the frame and about 
six inches from the broad end, and a second piece a 
foot or so from this to strengthen the frame and give 
it as much elasticity as possible. From side to side 
the oval is then woven with deer thongs or tendons 
forming a delicate basketwork surface capable of 
sustaining upon the surface of the snow the weight of 
the heaviest man. In walking with the snow shoe 
only the toe is fastened to it by a toe strap, and two 
pieces of deer skin which pass over the instep and are 
fixed at the back of the ankle. In order that the heel 
of the wearer may rise and fall and the toe sink so as 
not to impede his progress, a hole is left in the center of 
the basket work just under the toe strap, and into this 
the toe of the wearer sinks with every forward step. 
The movement is a peculiar gliding one, wholly un¬ 
like that of the natural walk, the snow shoe being 
slipped along over the white crystals rather than 
raised and planted down as in ordinary walking. 
The snow shoes used by the Indians measure from 
three to six feet in length, and from twelve to twenty 
inches in breadth, although the regulation tramping 
shoe of the Canadian shoe clubs is from ten to four¬ 
teen inches in width, and from three and one half to 
five feet in length. The costumes adopted by the 
Canadian clubs differ in color according of course to 
club uniform rules, but in cut are very similar to the 
toboggan costume, consisting of a blanket coat or 
cloak, with sash and tuque and knee breeches, and 


SNOW-SHOEING. 


4 1 


warm wool stockings for the gentlemen. Both sexes 
wear warm wool lined moccasins. His snow shoes 
are as important an item in the equipment of the 
Canadian huntsman as is his gun or his cartridge 
belt; to the logman as is his axe; and to the Indian buck 
as is his bow and quiver. They are frequently used 
by the Canadian troops in overland marches, and in 
the less thickly inhabited districts where the villagers 
may have to walk long distances over trackless wastes 
of snow to reach their educational institutes or their 
places of worship, it is a common thing to see school 
children and adults mounted upon snow shoes as they 
tramp their way to the village school and church. 
The tramps of the Montreal snow shoe clubs are 
looked forward to by their members with undisguised 
delight and impatience during the summer months, 
and are certainly most delightful institutions. So 
crisp, and clear and cold is the Canadian winter air, 
that the moonlight nights are bright enough to ena- 
ble one to read fine print, and thus lighted by Luna’s 
gentle glow, the gailv costumed snow shoers trod 
the crust of the white mantle, up hill and down, 
through forest and open, along highways and skirt¬ 
ing hedges, over fences and ditches—for the expert 
snow shoer does not hesitate a moment at an ordinary 
five rail fence—until, after having laughed and flirted, 
chatted and tumbled, they draw up at their destination, 
with the warm blood coursing through their veins 
and glowing in their faces, hungry enough to render 


































































SNOW SHOEING. 43 

desolate the first larder accessible. Should the moon 
not be “out,” the path of the “tramps’* is lighted by 
flaring torches swung at the ends of short sticks and 
carried over the shoulders of the gentlemen, and al¬ 
most any dark winter night the woodlands surrounding 
Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Kingston and the other 
populous towns and cities of the Dominion are filled 
with such parties. In their regular club tramps which 
often extend eighteen, twenty, and twenty-five miles 
of an evening, the members of the Montreal, the 
Emerald, the St. George’s, Maple Leaf, Argyle, 
Athletic, Custom House, Prince of Wales, and the 
score or more of other snow shoeing clubs in and 
about Montreal, are unattended by ladies, and give 
themselves up to the royal time they invariably enjoy. 
But to return to the system of breaking in, to which I 
was subjected by Dick on the morning in question. 

In anticipation of the ridiculous figure a novice 
would cut upon a pair of snow shoes, and wishing to 
impress the girls with the idea that I was a veteran 
“tramp,” when the time came for the club walk that 
evening, I induced Dick to adjourn to a level stretch 
of snow a half a mile distant from the big house, 
and there instruct me in the first principles of the art. 
The shoes were soon attached to my feet and there I 
stood helplessly, while my tutor adjusted his own foot 
gearing. 

“Now, my boy, strike out,” said Dick, as he 
moved gracefully off over the soft, deep snow. It 


44 


SNOW SHOEING. 


looked easy enough, and I forthwith “ struck out,” 
but with exceeding caution, for I had heard of the 
treacherous character of the snow-shoe, even though 
I had never tested it. Slowly I slipped the (to me) 
cumbersome things over the surface of the snow, 
and was surprised to find that, after all, snow-shoeing 
was not so difficult a feat as I had imagined, and 
growing bolder with the discovery, I essayed Dick’s 
free and confident air. One peculiarity about snow- 
shoeing is that when a fellow thinks he has got the 
knack down pretty fine, he is most apt to be brought 
to a sudden realization that what he don't know 
about it would fill any book ever published; and so it 
was with me, for within ten seconds after my first 
flush of confidence, I planted the toe of my right 
shoe upon the inner edge of my left, and plunged 
head forward into a three-foot drift, from which I 
extricated myself only with Dick’s assistance. With 
my soul full of determination and my neck full of 
melting snow, I went at it again^ however, and for 
two hours I staggered and stumbled, floundered and 
tumbled, beat the air with my arms and the snow 
with my feet, until finally tired out and exhausted, I 
seated myself upon a snow-covered log and gloomily 
reviewed the very much disordered course over which 
I had received my first lesson in snow-shoeing. 

“ I guess you can count me out of the party to¬ 
night, Dick,” I said between my gasps, as I pulled 
off my tuque and mopped my perspiring brow. 


SNOW SHOEING. 


45 

“ Nonsense,” said Dick, who stood near me, rest¬ 
ing easily upon one shoe and tapping the snow with 
the frame of the other; “you have gone through the 
worst of it, and when the knack comes, it comes like 
ice-skating—all at once. Now try it again. Glide 
the shoes over one another—like this—so as not to 
weaken you and tire you out. Raise the shoe lightly 
with the toe when taking an advance step, so that 
the end will trail; keep your head up and throw 
your shoulders back, and it will come as easily as 
walking over flag-stones. Now try it. We will 
make for that fence at the end of the field.” 

How could a man fail after such minute instruction 
as this, and be voted other than exceedingly stupid? 
With considerably less confidence in my ability than 
Dick seemed to have, 1 carefully got upon my feet 
and made a start. To my surprise I did not go 
down, and with each step my confidence increased. 

“You’ve got it, old fellow; you’ve got it dead to 
rights /” cried Dick, encouragingly. ‘’Don’t raise 
the shoe quite so high. That’s it.” And I finally 
took a seat upon the fence at the edge of the field, 
conscious that 1 had walked a quarter of a mile 
without a mishap. It came easily after this and when 
finally Dick suggested that we walk back to the 
house upon our shoes, I jumped at the suggestion, 
and reached the big portico without an accident. 
Eureka! I was at last master of the contrivance, 
and “the blue tuque ” should not want for an expert 
escort on the evening’s tramp. 


4 6 


SNOW SHOEING. 


When night fell upon “the Castle,” the snow com¬ 
menced to fall with it from the dark leaden-colored 
clouds above, and all hopes of a moonlight night 
were given up. 

“Never mind, we’ll have the torches to light us,” 
said the blue tuque , “and I should a thousand times 
rather walk in the flying snow than by moonlight. 
It’s getting colder too. I had not hoped for such 
good luck.” 

I looked at this bright eyed, rosy-faced Canadian 
girl, whose lithe and graceful figure, perfect com¬ 
plexion, and earnest, impulsive, animated disposition 
denoted perfect physical and ideal womanhood, and 
thought, as I heard her declaring her love for the 
cold, crisp air and the whirling snows of a Canadian 
winter, and at the prospect of taking a walk in which 
she seemed delighted: “This, then, is the secret of 
Canadian women’s well developed and symmetrical 
figures; their bright eyes and fresh complexions; their 
elastic step and graceful carriage, which stamps the 
Canadian girl even upon the streets of cosmopolitan 
New York or Chicago.’’ 

It was a merry, brightly costumed crowd of young 
Canadians that came down upon “ the Castle ” in 
doubles and quartettes that evening; shortly after 
seven o’clock, twoscore or more of them stood in the 
great hall of the hospitable old mansion. The uni¬ 
forms of both young men and women were alike 
in color, being white, with tuques , sashes, and stock- 


47 


SNOW SHOEING. 

ings of bright blue, the feet of all being encased in 
warm thick moccasins, and all carrying their snow- 
shoes swung over their left shoulders. A piece of 
the golden-hued snow-crusted cake that had been 
provided for all; a bit of rich red Burgundy to keep 
out the cold, and then shortly before eight o’clock, 
snow-shoes were strapped on, tuques pulled o\er ears, 
hands thrust into gauntlets and sashes bound more 
tightly about manly and womanly waists, and each 
man seizing a torch, singled out the young woman 
who had elected to bear his mishaps with him in the 
tramp, and away we started in single file across the 
broad lawn, with Dick and his sister Nell bringing 
up the rear as “whippers in.” I experienced no 
trouble this time. The lesson of the morning had 
been an effective one, and if I did not walk like a 
veteran, I at least walked well enough to conceal 
the fact that I was enjoying my first tramp, and the 
light of my torch flashed upon “the blue tuque ” 
at my side, for whose sake 1 had undergone the bat¬ 
tle of the morning. The snow was coming down in 
a gentle fall, and the air was cold, dry and bracing. 
Across the lawn tramped our party, their torches 
looking like a big serpent of fire winding its way 
over the mantle of snow that covered the earth to a 
depth of two feet or more, the grotesque style of the 
uniforms, with their bright tuques and sashes, the 
smoky glare of the torches and the happy laughter 
and careless chat of the snow shoers rendering the 


SNOW SHOEING. 


48 

scene and situation brim full of enjoyment. We were 
bound for Twombley’s, a country seat three miles 
distant, where we knew that good cheer, a well laid 
board and a hearty welcome awaited us. Through 
the gates of the Castle grounds we filed and then out 
onto the highway, which after half a mile of travel 
we left for a cross country route. Fences were en¬ 
countered, but manly hands and arms soon made a 
breach for our fair charges, and on we went over 
meadow and through woodland, while tuques were 
pushed back and sashes loosened, as our blood began 
to jump through our veins with the healthful exer¬ 
cise. Once we saw another line of torches half a 
mile away across the meadow, and we heard and 
answered their distant “ To-e-dcl ” as it was borne 
to us upon the still night air. It was in the midst of 
my heartfelt enjoyment of the trip, and just as I was 
in the humor to slap myself on the back for my suc¬ 
cess as a snow-shoer, that something happened. Just 
how it happened I do not know, but something must 
have gotten sadly tangled, for both my shoes seemed 
suddenly to become possessed of the devil, and over I 
went, heels over head into the snow, finally stopping 
fiat on my back with my shoes waving wildly in 
the air. Of course my torch went with me and it 
managed to give vent to a hiss of disapproval as I 
shoved it into the snow, but the act left us—“ the blue 
tuque ” and I, in darkness, and before the next torch 
came upon us, I was, with the prompt assistance of 


SNOW SHOEING. 


49 


my little partner, on my feet again. I smothered 
the invective that arose to my lips, lighted my ex¬ 
tinguished torch from the flame of the next couple, 
and forged ahead with Dick’s “ Yo-e-del , Torch 
down!” ringing in my ears, and the consciousness 
that “the blue tuque ” beside me was struggling hard 
to suppress her laughter. 

“ Funny, wasn’t it, Miss Reggie,” I asked finally, 
when the silence had become oppressive. 

“Very,” came the answer in a voice choking with 
girlish mirth, and then, unable to conceal her sense 
of the ridiculous longer, she burst forth into a peal of 
laughter in which I joined, and for which I readily 
forgave her when she asked it. Fifteen minutes 
later we arrived at Twombley’s, a big old fashioned 
house like ‘ the Castle,” the home of a Montreal mer¬ 
chant,whose greatest enjoyment lay in seeing his ma¬ 
tronly-looking wife, his two manly sons and as many 
fair daughters make the best of life. Warm was the 
welcome and bounteous the repast that had been pre¬ 
pared for our coming. Snow-shoes were shed and 
stood upon end in the big portico, and in the glow 
from the old fireplace in the big hall, cloaks and 
coats were removed, and the merry-making began. 
Several pieces of music were present and with waltz 
and quadrille, the sword dance from a young Scotch¬ 
man by the name of McGregor, a pretty fancy dance 
with a Highland-fling step by the little “blue tuque” 
and songs by others of our party, three hours of an 























































































































































SNOW SHOEING. 


5 1 

evening I shall never forget, sped by all too quickly. 
Then once more cloaks and coats were donned; sashes 
tightened, snow-shoes adjusted, and under the radiant 
light of a lovely moon,which lowering clouds no longer 
hid, we bade our generous hosts farewell and started 
upon our return tramp to the Castle, which we 
reached a full hour after midnight. A parting flagon 
in the big hall— e?i snow-shoes; good-nights were 
spoken, and half an hour after, in my dreams 1 was 
tramping back to Twombley’s with “the blue tuque ” 
beside me. 

And now farewell to Canada, but only until an¬ 
other winter shall have rolled around, for then, un¬ 
less our own country shall have shown a disposition 
to improve its opportunities in a social sense and 
enjoy winter life to some extent as the Canucks 
enjoy it, the snows of another year will see the writer 
in Montreal, where King Boreas holds court, as 
he reigns in no city in all this broad country of ours. 


THE COMING PASTIME. 

V. 


THE FUTURE OF TOBOGGANING—RULES FOR THE 

GOVERNMENT OF A TOBOGGAN CLUB-BADGES 

AND UNIFORMS—THE ARTIFICIAL SLIDE-PT ANS 

AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR CONSTRUCTING THE 
SAME. 

In concluding this work, I want to say to lovers 
of winter sports not only in New York and Chicago, 
but throughout the Eastern and New England States 
and in Northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri, 
as well as throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
Iowa, that tobogganing should and can be the popu¬ 
lar winter pastime in all of these sections. Natural 
slides, as I have stated in the early pages of this 
book, are not nearly so desirable or safe as are the 
artificial , and any one with a little ingenuity, and at 
very little expense, can construct a very good tobog¬ 
gan slide. So far as Chicago is concerned, the trans¬ 
formation at the Chicago ball park, turning those 
beautiful athletic grounds into a great center of winter 
pastimes, will probably set the ball rolling in ice- 
skating rinks and tobogganing this winter; and next 
winter, if indeed it does not take place this winter, 

(52) 


THE COMING PASTIME. 


I fancy that at no infrequent intervals along Drexel 
and Grand boulevards and the other drives leading 
to spacious parks and public breathing grounds, to¬ 
boggan slides will have been erected by as many 
flourishing clubs, and that when not tobogganing, 
these same clubs will be participating in the exhila¬ 
rating and in every way pleasurable sport of snow- 
shoe walking. The winters both in Chicago and 
New York are beautifully adapted to every sport that 
obtains to so conspicuous an extent in Canada, and 
that it has not long ere this been taken advantage of, 
is the fault of our young people themselves. Let 
the sport once be thoroughly understood, and it can¬ 
not fail to be appreciated to an extent that will make 
it as immensely popular in the United States as in 
Canada. 

The Kenwood Club in Chicago, and the Orange 
and Tuxedo Clubs down in Jersey, are doubtless 
only the first of the many organizations of the kind 
that must spring into existence with the populariza¬ 
tion of tobogganing, and for the guidance of any 
young people wishing to organize, we print the fol¬ 
lowing form for by-laws and club regulations as now 
in vogue among the Canadian clubs. 


CLUB ORGANIZATION. 


BY-LAWS ; 

OR, 

RULES AND REGULATIONS 

OF THE 

Toboggan Club . 


ARTICLE I. 

This club shall be called the. 

Toboggan Club, and is established with a view to 
encouraging the love of a healthful out-door sport. 

ARTICLE II. 

The badge of this club shall be. 

and a Toboggan on a ribbon to be selected by a com¬ 
mittee of lady associate members. 

ARTICLE III. 

The membership of this club shall be of active mem¬ 
bers, honorary members, and lady associate mem¬ 
bers. 

None but active members shall vote or be eligible 
for office. 


(54) 








CLUB ORGANIZATION. 55 

ARTICLE IV. 

Elections. -Elections of members shall be by 
ballot; one black ball in ten votes shall exclude an 
applicant. 

article v. 

The annual subscription shall be as follows: 

Sec. i. Active members, - - (Five Dollars.) 

Sec. 2. Lady associate members, ( ) 

Sec. j. Every member on being elected shall 
sign the Rules and Regulations, and pay his dues 
within ten days. 

Sec. 4. Annual subscriptions shall be due and 
payable on the first day of November, each and every 
year. 

Sec. 3. Any member in arrears for two months 
shall be excluded from all the privileges of the club, 
and in four months may be expelled from the club 
for the same cause. 

Sec. 6 . Badges shall be issued to members only 
upon payment of dues. 

Sec. y. Special Badges may be obtained from the 
Treasurer for the use of children under 15 on 

(days) from . o’clock to , 

on payment of $.. 

ARTICLE vi. 


Officers.— Sec. 1. The officers of this club 
shall consist of a President, Vice Presidents, 

Secretary and Treasurer. 








56 


CLUB ORGANIZATION. 


Sec. 2. Elections of officers shall be by ballot, 
annually, and meetings for that purpose shall be held 
on the first Tuesday in November. 

ARTICLE VII. 

Duties of Officers. — Sec. i. It shall be the 
duty of the President to preside at all meetings, and 
see that the rules of the club are enforced at all 
times; to appoint committees of management when¬ 
ever the business of the club requires it, and to call 
special meetings upon request of any five members. 
In the absence of the President the duties to be per¬ 
formed by one of the Vice-Presidents. 

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to 
keep an accurate record of proceedings, and to attend 
to all correspondence. 

Sec. j. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to 
receive all moneys paid into the club, and keep a reg¬ 
ular account of receipts and disbursements; and no 
bills shall be paid by him except such as have been 
approved by the Managing Committee. 

Sec. 4. He shall send notices to all members of 
unpaid dues. 

Sec. 5. The Managing Committee may call spe¬ 
cial meetings at any time upon six days’ notice, and 
fifteen members shall constitute a quorum for ordi¬ 
nary business. The Committee can make rules for 
the management and use of the slide. 


CLUB ORGANIZATION. 


57 


ARTICLE VIII. 

Sec. I. Any member who has been guilty of un- 
gentlemanly conduct may be suspended by the Com¬ 
mittee, or may be expelled by a two-thirds vote of 
the members present, at a regularly called meeting 
for that purpose. 

Sec. 2. Members using the slide must wear the 
club badge or uniform. 

Club badges cannot be transferred. 

Sec. j. No one can be admitted to the slide with¬ 
out a club badge. 

Sec. 4. Special badges for visitors may be had of 
the Managing Committee subject to limitation by 
Committee, upon payment of $. 

ARTICLE IX. 

The Rules may be amended or repealed by a two- 
thirds vote at a meeting regularly called for that pur¬ 
pose. 

RULES 

GOVERNING THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE. 

I. There will be no charge for the use of the 
slide. 

II. Felt badges intended to be worn on the left 
breast or left arm by club members and their lady 
guests, may be secured upon payment of twenty-jive 
cents each , at the store of 




53 


CI.UB ORGANIZATION. 


TEN-DAY BADGES FOR GUESTS. 

III. Active members shall be provided by the 

Secretary, with two visitors' badges . Such visitors 
must be introduced by members of the club, and must 
be non-residents of . Upon their first visit 

they must be registered in the visitors' book at the club- 
hozise . 

IV. Club and visitors’ badges must be worn in 
plain sight at all times. Club badges are not trans¬ 
ferable , and if used by other than the rightful owner, 
shall be forfeited. Members or visitors not wearing 
or showing badges shall not be admitted to the slide. 

V. Rule No. 3, relating to guests, may be modi¬ 
fied at any time by the Board of Trustees. 

VI. The Slide Committee shall have full power, 
subject to the Board of Trustees, over the slide and 
the care-takers, opening and closing it as they may 
deem best. 

VII. No one will be allowed to steer a toboggan 
unless wearing moccasins or overshoes. This pro¬ 
hibits the wearing of a leather boot in steering. 

VIII. The committee and care-takers shall have 
absolute control of the platform and the starting of 
each toboggan. 

By order of the Trustees, 


President. 





( 59 ) 































































































































































6o 


CONSTRUCTING A SLIDE. 


TO BUILD A SLIDE. 

Only two things are necessary; first, the territory 
upon which to construct it, and second, the materials. 
If the plans and specifications printed in this little 
volume are clearly followed, any one with even an 
ordinary conception of carpentering can put up a slide. 
Following we give specifications and estimates of 
material required for building a slide of three chutes 
on level ground: 

The height of level platform from ground to be 40 feet. 

The size of level platform to be 16x18 feet. 

The length of the chute or inclined part of slide to be 160 
feet. 

The slide to consist of three chuteways and a dragway and 
steps, divided from each other by a 2xio-inch plank spiked on 
edge, as shown in cross section view in accompanying plan. 

[Note.— With the width of the whole slide at 18 feet, the 
chutes are each 4 feet wide, and the stair and dragway 5 feet 
wide. This is thought by some to be wider than necessary, as 
the “Star ” toboggan, which is the standard, is only 18 inches 
wide. Sixteen feet in width is thought to be sufficient, which 
would reduce the expense somewhat, and as 16 feet floor 
beams are more likely to be found in stock in ordinary lumber 
yards, it may be better to reduce the width of the chute and 
dragways proportionately.] 

ESTIMATE OF MATERIAL REQUIRED. 

Ufrights for Support op Main Platform or Level Part .— 
Twenty-one pieces 4x6x13 (or forty-two pieces 2x6 spiked to¬ 
gether, if more convenient). 

Upr ghts for Support op Inclined Part. —Thirty-two pieces 


CONSTRUCTING A SLIDE. 


6 l 

4x6x13 (or lengths to cut to best advantage for shorter posts). 

Floor Beams. —Forty-two pieces 2x6x18 (or 16, as suggested 
in note above). 

Floor Plank for Level Part. —Thirty-six pieces t 54x6x16 
(proportionately less, if note is followed). 

Floor Plunk for Chutes. —One hundred and sixty-eight pieces 
154*6x12 (or proportionately less, if note is followed). 

Brace Pieces. —Fifty-two pieces 2x5x16. 

For Side Rail and Support.— Thirty-one pieces 2x4x16. 

For Parting Strips. —Thirty pieces 2x10x16. 

For Boarding up Under Side Rails. —Fifty pieces ^x8xi6. 

For Stairs , etc. —Thirty pieces 154^8x16. 

A bundle of laths or other light strips to hold the ice, if the 
slide is to be paved with ice, whicli is recommended. There 
are to be three sections in elevation of platform, of 13 feet 
lengths, placed one upon the other, to obtain the full elevation. 
It is intended to place a flat stone or piece of timber to stand 
the upr'ghts upon. When one post stands upon another for 
the upper sections, short pieces of plank should be well spiked 
upon the insides of the posts, one-half of the piece lapping 
upon each post. These pieces are put upon Ihe inner sides in 
order not to be in the way of spiking on the outside bracing, as 
shown in the drawing. 

The planking of the platform is to run lengthwise of the 
slide, and Ihe planking of the slideways is in 12 feet lengths, 
also running lengthwise of the slide. 

The posts under the pitch of the slide are to be placed just 
12 feet apart, from center to center, and floor beams are spiked 
upon both sides of the upper ends of the posts, in order to 
make certain and safe support at both ends of planking. 

It will be observed that the lower part of the slide is not as 
steep as the upper. This may be varied to suit particular 
cases. It is designed to make the change to level grourd less 
; brupt. Of course, when ground can be selected which has a 
descending grade, as is almost always the case, just so much 


62 


CONSTRUCTING A SLIDE. 


of the structure will be saved as is made up bj the natural 
rise of the ground. 

The method of construction is very cheap, simple and 
strong, but care should be taken that the braces and floor 
beams and posts are thoroughly well spiked together. By 
boarding up around the posts of the lower part of the level 
part of the platform, a large room will be afforded, at a slight 
additional cost, which may be kept warm, if desired, and 
afford a means of shelter or a place for refreshments, as well 
as to afford a place for the club to store their articles under 
lock and key. 

In ordinarily favorable localities the cost ought not to exceed 
$250, which is a liberal estimate. The slide built upon the ice 
during the carnival in Burlington in the winter of i885-’86, 
not quite but nearly as large as that in the accompanying plan, 
cost the sum of $175 complete. 

At a cost of $250, a club of 50 members, subscribing $5 
each, would do the work. And then by selling special privi¬ 
lege badges, or tickets to visitors not members of the club at a 
fixed price on certain days, the ordinary running expenses 
could be met without further assessment of members. 

It is not absolutely necessary that there should be a drag on 
which the toboggans are drawn up to the top, but they can be 
drawn up the stairs without any difficulty whatever. This is 
often done in order to reduce the cost of the slide, and as this 
is frequently quite an item, it is worthy of mention. 

PACKING A CHUTE. 

Although the last nail may have been driven in 
the structure, and the last brace set, the work upon it 
is as yet only half finished, for now comes the some¬ 
what delicate operation of “ packing the chute” with 
the snow that under proper treatment should within 
a few hours present an unbroken glare of ice, over 


CONSTRUCTING A SLIDE. 


63 

which the toboggans and their loads should rush 
without the slightest jar or roughness. Only with 
experience can one become a good “ packer,” it re¬ 
quiring experience to know just how to bank up the 
snow in the chute so that it will freeze solidly, and 
how to apply the water so that it will freeze 
smoothly. The following is an excellent plan to fol¬ 
low for making the foundation of a slide: Mix saw¬ 
dust with about an equal amount of snow, and put 
down as a foundation about four inches of this 
mixture, wetting it a little—not enough to make it 
run, however—and allow it to freeze. This will 
make the ice last much longer in thawing weather 
than to put the ice or snow directly on the bed of the 
slide, the idea being that the sawdust keeps it from 
melting from the under side at all, and besides, it 
makes such a smooth surface. An addition of one- 
quarter or half an inch of snow will always keep the 
slide in good shape, and it will last all winter in any 
ordinary weather by taking fairly good care of it. 


CIRCULAR LETTER. 

Johnson, Emerson 8c Co., 

Proprietors and Sole Manufacturers in the United States of 


Tit “Stir Tilsit" ill “Burlington" 

BURLINGTON, VERMONT. 



Last season, which was the first for the Toboggan Trade in this country, the 
business, though entirely new and untried, was, all things considered, one of re¬ 
markable success. 

It was not very well known that the only really good form of toboggan was pat¬ 
ented, and many manufacturers, enticed by the captivating prospects of a good 
trade, rushed into the business and put their various products upon the market. 
Hut, however various the designs, each aimed to produce in his own way the popu- 
ular slat toboggan) but invariably soon found himself plump against an infringe¬ 
ment of thi siar Patents and had to quit the field. 

The original Star Patent was taken out in Canada, and afterward secured 
in the United States. It is the “ground patent”: the first one ever issued on Tobog¬ 
gans, and is by virtue of its being a fir tpatent , given a very wide application by 
the Department, as against all claims that aim to produce the same results. The 
Star Patents and Registered Trade Mark granted by the United States, are now the 
exclusive property of the unde-signe.l, and all infringements will be vigorously 
prosecuted. The “.Burlington” and “Boys’ Own” Toboggans are also patented 
and names registered. 

The possession of these Patents and Trade Marks gives absolute control of the 
only popular form of Toboggans, and we are therefore in a position to give the 
trade every opportunity for a good business. 

Knowing the importance of encouraging Clubs, we have lithographed a work¬ 
ing plan drawn to a scale, of the most approved form of Slide, together with speci¬ 
fications and estimatei of amount and cost of material required to erect the same 
We have also prepared a form of By-Laws, or Rules and Regulations, for organiz¬ 
ing and managing Clubs and Slides. 

We have also in press an elegant Chromo Lithograph, 22x28 inches, designed 
to assist in the formation of Clubs. The picture is a spirited scene of one of the 
largest Club Slides in full operation, and full of life and beauty; many of the fig¬ 
ures are from actual photographs from life, and show the handsome costumes 
worn. These gay costumes against a ground of fleecy snow, and the brilliant ac¬ 
tion of the whole picture, will attract instant attention wherever exhibited. Sam¬ 
ple lithograph will be sent to any address by A. G. SPALDING & BROS, on re¬ 
ceipt of 25 cents. 

“Boys’ Own” Toboggans vs. Sleds. 

While the business with Clubs is for the higher priced Toboggans, it is very 
sure that the great popularity of our Boys’Own Toboggans will make the de¬ 
mand for them in place of Sleds very large, and a supply should be provided for 
early to secure prompt delivery. We have made preparations for a large business, 
but it is not unlikely that the boom may exceed our preparations, and late orders 
may be difficult to fill. 

We have arranged with Messrs. A. G. SPALDING & BROS., of 241 
Broadway, New York, and 108 Madison Street, Chicago, for the exclusive sale of 
these Toboggans, and orders from dealers should be sent direct to them. 

Respectfully, 

JOHNSON, EMERSON & CO., 

Burlington, Vermont. 




• i 


Star Patent” Toboggans. 



A good many people will ask, “How can you tell a good Toboggan, anyhow?” 
Briefly, then, the requisites for a perfect Toboggan, are resiliency, or springi¬ 
ness, combined with strength, speed and lightness, and the quality of quickly yield¬ 
ing to, and recovering from, contact with uneven surfaces of ice and snow, when 
under great speed. 

These qualites prevent sudden strains from breaking the Toboggan, and permit 
the mo^t exhilarating speed with perfect safety. When Tobogganing became a 
pastime, from its wonderful and fascinating merits as a safe outdoor sport, it was 
quickly foun l that the old Indian Toboggan could not “ stand the racket,” and once 
broken was wholly lost. Hence the invention of the “ STAR ” Slat Toboggan, 
which permits a broken part to be removed and replaced by a new one. 

SPECIAL NOTICE. 

Johnson, Emerson & Co., Burlington, Vt., are the sole proprietors and manu¬ 
facturers of the Star Patents, granted on Toboggans made of slats, and particu¬ 
larly, in any form to lessen the frictaional surface; and all persons are warned that 
making or dealing in Toboggans with slats, and with their under or running sur¬ 
face champered, rounded or shaped, in any way other than perfectly flat, or with 
the under surface furrowed or corrugated, is a direct infringement of these patents, 
and notice is given that all such infringements will be prosecuted by the manufac¬ 
turers. 

The trade is especially cautioned against dealing in shaped, slat or furrowed 
Toboggans not bearing the Trademark as noted. 

ALSO TAKE NOTICE. 

That this TRADEMARK is covered by the United States letters patent, 

and its use in any way applied to Toboggans by other parties is pro¬ 

hibited by law, and all such infringements will he prosecuted. 


A 6 foot Star Toboggan weighs only 14 lbs. and is a marvel of strength. 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 341 Broadway, HEW YORK. 






“STAR PATENT ” TOBOGGANS. 



The “ Star Patent” Toboggan has been from the first the acknowledged stand¬ 
ard, simply because it is constructed with an understanding of the requirements. 
The essential features of the original patent (the first patent ever issued on Tobog¬ 
gans) were, a Toboggan made of slats, and the slats shaped to lessen the frictional 
surface. The old Indian form was perfectly flat on the bearing surface, formed of 
one or two pieces of thin wood, and besides lacking the requisite strength and 
lateral resiliency, it offered the greatest resistance, or frictional surface to the 
snow. This is true of all flat Toboggans. 

We ask especial attention to the new method of adjusting the side rails, which 
is patented. 


No. O. THE “STAR” EXPERT. 

With Patent Steel Shoe. 

This quality, which is our best, is made in two sizes only. The Toboggan is 
made of rock maple, of selected, kiln dried material, highly finished. It consists 
of seven slats, oval shape on the bearing surface, three of which are slightly thicker 
than the others, and these are provided with a patent steel shoe. 

The shoe is of steel, and by an ingenious invention requiring special michin- 
ery, flanges are turned into the wood in such a way that no bolts, screws or rivets 
are used anywhere along the bearing surface, and makes the most perfect thi g of 
the kind ever invented. 


PRICE LIST. 


7 feet long, xS inches wide, each 
6 “ “ 18 “ “ “ 


$12 OO 
. IO OO 


No. I. THE “STAR” STANDARD 

Is made of rock maple of kiln-dried and selected material, and is thoroughly first- 
class m every respect. The first four sizes composed of seven slats, and put to¬ 
gether in the same manner as the “ Expert”; also oval shaped, three of which are 
thicker than t.ic others, trimmings nickel plated or polished brass. 


feet long, xS in. wide, each.. .$5 50 


12 y 2 


... 4 00 


8 feet long, xS in. wide, each.$S 50 

7 “ “ 18 “ “ “ 7 50 

6 “ “ xS « « “ 6 50 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, NEW YORK. 

















































No. 2. THE “STAR” SPECIAL. 


This quality is made of selected material—oak, hickory—with a high degree of 
finish. Made in best manner. Silver Plated Trimmings. 


8 feet long, iS in 
7 “ “ iS “ 
6 “ “ iS <k 


wide, each 
•< 


(< <( 


,$io oo 
. 9 oo 

. 8 oo 



NO. 3. THE “ BURLINGTON" TOBOGGAN. 



The “ Burlington ” is a first class Toboggan in workmanship and material, 
and is as near perfect as any flat Toboggan can be made. It is strong and durable 
made of hard maple and other close-grained and smooth-wearing hard woods, but 
is not as swift as the “STAR ” because of its flat under, or running surface. 
But with the patent fixtures it is unqualifiedly the best flat Toboggan made. 
Made in three sizes only, of seven slats of equal thickness, with japanned 
trimmings. 


7 feet long, iS inches wide, each.$5 50 

6 “ “ 18 “ “ “ . 4 50 

5 “ “ iS “ “ “ ... 350 


NO. 4. THE BOY’S OWN. 



The “ Boy’s Own” is as its name would imply, a smaller Toboggan. It is 
made of slats, however, of good selected wood, well and strongly made with the 
patent slotted rave or sale rail, and has become very popular for durability and 
lightness, add will be a Christmas Present most desired. 

4 feet long, each .$2 50 

3 “ “ “ . 2 00 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS.. 

103 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, NEW YORK. 













TOBOGGAN UNIFORMS. 



BLANKET SUITS. 

Complete, consisting of Coat, Knee Pants, 
Toque (or Knit Cap), Stockings and Socks, 
Sash and Moccasins. 


Each. 

No. i. Best Quality.$2S oo 

No. 2. 2d “ 22 oo 

No. 3. 3d “ iS 00 

BLANKET GOATS. 

Each. 

No. 1. Best Quality.$13 5 ° 

No. 2. 2d “ 10 00 

No. 3. 3d “ S 00 

BLANKET PANTS. 

No. 1. Best Quality.$6 50 

No. 2. 2d “ 5 00 

No. 3. 3d “ 4 00 

TOQUES (or Knit Caps). 

No. 1. Best Quality.$2 00 

No. 2. 2d “ 1 50 

No. 3. 3d “ 1 00 

No. 4. 4th “ . 50 

SASHES. 

No. 1. Best Quality.$2 00 

No. 2. 2d “ ' . 1 50 

No. 3, 3d “ 1 00 


STOCKINGS. 

No. 1a. “ “ Socks.. 75 \ * 

No. 2. 2d “ Hose. . . 1 00/ e 

No. 2a. “ “ Socks.. 50) 5 

No. 3. 3d “ Hose.;. 75 t , 

No. 3a. “ “ Socks. 50 | 

Note. —In Tobogganing a pair of long Stockings are worn with a pair of short 
Socks which are rolled over the Moccasm. 


MOCCASINS. 

No. 1. Best Quality..$2 50 

We can furnish our best quality of suits in the following colors: Black and 
Orange, Blue and Red, Gray and Blue, Gray and Red, Fawn and Red, Cardinal 
and Black, White and Red, White and Blue. In our Second and Third quality 
we can furnish Gray and blue, Red and Black, White and Blue, White nd Red. 

Clubs desiring special club colors can, by ordering in sufficient quantities, have 
special colors rrnde to order. 

Note. —The color mentioned first denotes the color of the body of the blanket, 
and the second mentioned color is the stripe; as in case of Blue and Red—Blue is 
the principal color, and the stripe is Red. 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, NEW YORK. 



























PUBLIC TOBOGGAN SLIDE AND ICE SKATING PARK, 

AT CHICAGO BASE BALL PARK, 

CORNER THROOP AND HARRISON STREETS. 


A Three-Chute Toboggan Slide has been erected at the Chicago Ball Park, and 
will be open to the public about December i. Admission to Park, 25c.; 5 Tickets 
$1.00; 20 Tickets, $3 50; Season Tickets, $5.00. 

The whole Park will be lit with 16 Electric Lights, and will be open day 
and evening. 



No. 4. 
No. 4^ 
No. 5 
No. 6 
Racing 


Snowshoes, size, 10^x36 inches 

“ “ 11/4x36 “ 

« “ 12x42 “ 

<1 

“ size, 11^x36 “ 



One of the favorite win¬ 
ter sports of the Canadians 
is Snowshoeing. The ap¬ 
pended cut illustrates the 
manner in which they are 
used. We are prepared to 
furnish customers with 
Snowshoes, which for 
lightness and excellence 
of workmanship, cannot 
be equaled by other man- 
ufacturers. 

Price 
Per pair. 

.$4 OO 

. 5 

. 6 

. 7 

. 5 


For list and prices of Suits for Snowshoeing, see description for 
Toboggan Suits, the same styles and kinds being used. 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

108 Madison Street, CHICAGO. 241 Broadway, NEW YORK. 


8 8 8 8 














Spalding’s Peerless Club Skates. 



No. o. Spalding’s Peerless Club, Lever Clamp, best 

hardened steel, plated and polished.$5 00 

No. 1. Spalding’s Peerless Club, Lever Clamp, best 

hardened steel, nickel plated.. 4 00 


Spalding’s Peerless Club No. 3. 

FOR LADIES. 



No. 3. Spalding’s Peerless Club for Ladies, Lever Toe 
Clamp, Heel Straps, best hardened steel, nickel 
plated..$4 do 

A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 

108 Madison Street, 241 Broadway, 

CHICAGO. NEW YORK. 

W49 
































































































ACME PATTERN SKATES. 


Made by The Samuel Winslow Skate Mfg. Co. 



No. 5. Cast Steel Runners.Per pair, $1 25 

No. 7. Hardened Steel Runners, extra finish. “ 2 00 

No. 10. Hardened Steel Runners, nickel plated “ 3 00 



The above style is of the best quality, with welded, tem¬ 
pered and polished steel blades, and blued steel foot rests and 
clamps. 

Sizes, S, 8 } 4 t 9, 9>£, 10, ioj 4 } n, n Yz inches. 


No. 1. Blued, price per pair.$4 oo 

No. 2. Nickel Plated, per pair. 5 00 

No. o. Cast Steel, per pair. 2 50 


A. G. SPALDING & BROS., 


108 Madison Street, 

CHICAGO. 


241 Broadway, 

NEW YORK. 























ATHLETIC SERIES.—The aim of the various manuals or hand books consti¬ 
tuting- our Athletic Series will be to educate the readers in each particular game or 
sport in which they may be interested. A long- experience in sporting matters 
induces a belief that thorough descriptions, accompanied by the necessary illus 
trations, will enable those who, by force of circumstances are deprived of the op¬ 
portunity of obtaining practical instruction or accurate knowledge, to become pro¬ 
ficient without such instruction. 

Each. 


To. 1. 

No. 2 . 

No. 3 . 

No. 4 . 

No. 7 . 

No. 8. 


No. 9 . 


No. 10 . 


No. 11 . 


No. 13 . 

No. 14 . 


No. 15 . 


SPALDING’S OFFICIAL BASE BALL GUIDE.- The standard 
authority on Base Ball, and only complete Base Ball Guide pub¬ 
lished. Contains official playing rules, and records of all cham¬ 
pionship games the champio <ship records of the Northwestern 
League, East rn League, Union Association and College Associa¬ 
tion ....$ 

SPALDTNG’S OFFICIAL LEAGUE BOOK.— Containing the only 
official averages and League matter, as furnished by the Seer Gary 

of National League. 

SPALDING'S ILLUSTRATED HAND BOOK OF PITCHING 
AND FIELDING. —A work containing instructive chapters on all 
the latest points of playing in Base Ball Pitching, including curve 
pitching, special del ve ry, strategy, head work, speed, throwing, 
balking, etc., with new rules f >r pitching and fielding, and catch¬ 
ing the ball.. 

SPALDING’S ILLUSTRATED HAND BOOK OF BATTING 
AND BASE RUNNING. —Containing special chapters and illus¬ 
trations on scientific batting, position, placing the ball, sacrifice 
hitting, home run-, base hits, new batting rules, the art of running 

the bases, etc. The only book of the kind pub'ished. 

SPALDING’S ILLUSTRATED FOOT BALL RULES AND 
REFEREES’ BOOK.—Authorized and adopted by the American 

In er-colligiate Association . 

SPALDING’S LAWN TENNIS MANUAL.— (Illustrated ) Con¬ 
taining full instructions in the popular game of Lawn Tennis. 
Illustrated articl -s for beginners, and the new rules of the National 

Lawn Tennis Association.,.. . 

SPALDING'S MANUAL OF ROLLER SKATING.— Containing 
over fifty illustrations, showing each movement, and has more in¬ 
formation on the subject than all other books combined, including 
a list of 200 combination figures, rink rules, programme for skating 

contest , Polo rules, etc... 

SPALDING’S OFFICIAL CROQUET MANUAL.— Containing a 
history of the game, with full instructions for proper and scientific 
use of the ball and mallet, as practiced by skilled players; also the 
“American Rules of Loose and Tight Croquet,” as adopted by the 

National Croquet Congress. Fully illustrated. 

SPALDING’S MAN UAL OF BOXING, INDIAN CLUB SWING¬ 
ING, AND MANLY SPORTS. —The most practical instruction 
book ever published; contains over 250 illustrations on Boxing, 
Wrestling, Fencing, Club Swinging, Du nb Bell and Gymnastic 

Exercises, Athletic Sports, Swimming, e tc. 

SPALDING’S HAND BOOK OF SPORTING RULES AND 
TRAINING, —We have collected together the rules of all sports 
practiced in the civilized portions of the world which are published, 

together with articles on the various methods of training. 

PRACTICAL GYMNASTICS WITHOUT A TEACHER. —For 
the school-room, the play ground, anil the individual. Prof. War- 
man, the author has been eminently successful in all parts of the 
country in teaching his most valuable of all systems of physical 
training for the symmetrical develop nent of the body. This little 

manual is the result of his years of experience. 

THE TOBOGGAN. A new book just out contains much interest¬ 
ing matter on Tobogganing, including plans and specifications for 
buikbng Slid s, By-Laws, etc., for organizing Clubs, and Rules 
for Governing Slides.. 


10 


10 


2 S 


35 


10 


10 


35 


10 


25 


2 S 


50 


25 
























October 26, 1884. If we may believe the assertions of our patrons, we have the 


8U Q, SPALDING & BR08*» 


CHICAGO STORE. 



&. ©. SPALDING & BROS;, 

MADISON STREET, CHICAGO. 

241 Broadway, New York. 


store in America, and the largest stock of general Sporting Goods in the world. We sell at 
both >vholesale.and retail, and orders from, dealers .and individuals intriisted tp us^iU re¬ 
ceive prompt and careful attention. 

























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